New Orleans swingers convention linked to 41 Covid infections

If I thought for one minute that anyone would end up in the hospital, I would certainly not have had our event, organiser explains

More than 40 people tested positive for Covid-19 after attending a five-day swingers convention in New Orleans.

The “Naughty N’awlins” convention, which was held from 10 to 14 November in New Orleans, Louisiana has been tied to at least 41 cases of coronavirus.

Bob Hannaford, the owner of convention organiser, Naughty Events, wrote in a blog post on Friday that a Covid-19 outbreak occurred despite a number of coronavirus measures being implemented.

“We went to extraordinary measures for check-in and instituted a touchless process with required temperature checks, social distancing in line, and sanitising upon check-in,” Mr Hannaford wrote.

“We issued wristbands in one colour to indicate who had antibodies and therefore was not contagious. We issued a second color to those that showed us a very recent negative Covid-19 test,” he continued. “The wristbands even had each person’s date of their test circled.”

The convention also listed a number of rules, which included wearing face masks in public spaces. However, when it came to “playing”, attendees were told to make their own choices on safety, according to the Daily Mail.

At the time of the convention, New Orleans allowed a maximum of 100 people to attend an indoor event as long as they wore face masks and practiced social distancing. Events were required to obtain permits.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the city of New Orleans confirmed to NBC News that the events company did not obtain a permit to hold the convention. It is unclear whether it is under investigation for breaching Covid-19 measures.

Mr Hannaford confirmed that just one day after the end of the convention, “we had our first positive case”.

He added: “It was a wife who tested positive on Monday night after our event. Her husband tested negative. Both were tested prior to coming to the event.”

Mr Hannaford said that in the days that followed, the events company received dozens more emails informing them of a positive coronavirus test result.

At least 41 of the 300 attendees informed the company that they had tested positive for Covid-19 in the days following the convention.

One of the attendees, who the owner of Naughty Events described as a “good friend”, was hospitalised in a serious condition after contracting the virus, but has since been released.

Mr Hannaford admitted that the company still has “no idea” how many people got Covid-19 tests after the event.

He revealed that his team has reached out to attendees to urge them to get tested and has conducted “very aggressive” contact tracing.

Mr Hannaford said that if he could go back in time he “would not produce this event again”.

He added: “If I thought for one minute that he or anyone would end up in the hospital, I would certainly not have had our event.”

Since the start of the pandemic, Louisiana has recorded more than 238,000 coronavirus cases and at least 6,455 deaths.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, there are now more than 13.7 million people who have tested positive for the coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached 270,691.